Carlos Sainz has revealed Williams’ next Formula 1 upgrade was developed without driver feedback, with the planned package in the works since before the season began.
Despite the team halting in-season development, Sainz remains confident the update can help Williams stay competitive in a fierce midfield battle.
The Grove-based outfit resides in fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship after 11 rounds, accumulating 55 points so far and holding a 19-point advantage over Racing Bulls.
Whilst Williams’ primary focus is firmly on the major F1 regulation changes coming in 2026, the team is still aiming to defend its current position in the standings.
The Spaniard confirmed that one final update is on the way, but admitted that it was designed before the campaign started and without input from the drivers.
“We have an upgrade coming but it was developed a long time ago,” Sainz told media including Motorsport Week.
“Even though it hasn’t been developed based on our feedback from testing and the first few races, there’s an upgrade in the pipeline that has been there for a while. So we are encouraged by that.”
When asked about the tightening midfield battle and whether the lack of new parts could threaten Williams’ buffer, Sainz replied: “We are not just going to keep falling back for sure.
“At the same time, even if we haven’t developed the car, I’m extremely confident that both Canada and Austria even Barcelona, we would have caught a point if we execute things well.
“Monaco, it’s all these consecutive weekends in a row where the car potential and the speed of the team, the two drivers, has been much higher than the results that we’ve achieved.”
Williams battling persistent race-day reliability issues
The Austrian Grand Prix proved to be a disaster for Williams, with both drivers once again falling victim to reliability issues.
Sainz’s race was over before it even began, his car stuck in first gear and his brakes catching fire while returning to the pits from the formation lap.
Alex Albon, meanwhile, was running in sixth place when he was forced to retire with a recurring issue similar to the one that disrupted him in Canada.
“Obviously, there is a certain level of concern within the team of having so many reliability issues, three in a row, Alex and the brake issue with me,” Sainz admitted.
“The brake was a lot of things coming together that we understand now why it happened and it shouldn’t happen again.
“The issue on Alex’s car, that has happened a few [times] in a row now, is something that obviously we are trying to solve and trying to understand and for that we are doing everything we can to understand it this weekend because it’s a very strange issue that only happens on race day.
“We only see it happening on race day, so you cannot simulate it at certain points of the weekend, even though we try our best, but yeah, we’ll keep working on it.”
Ahead of Saturday’s qualifying, Williams were found in breach of curfew by the FIA as the team worked late to fine-tune the FW47 for the British Grand Prix.
However, as it was Williams’ first offence of the season, the team has simply used the first of its two permitted jokers, with no further action taken.
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